2 month hackathon on a remote tropical island

Besides being at the top of HN, what sort of validation does this have as an actual viable event. I mean, can I get a tropical picture with some water, make a simple one page website, and just start harvesting your guys emails to?<p>I'm not trying to be overly negative, it just seems like there is sooo little information being given to be making the top of HN

I've done some tropical island hacking (solo) and it worked really well for me. The longest I did was 3 weeks on Koh Phi Phi in Thailand. I had a nice discrete problem: write Forth drivers for all the interesting hardware in a little ARM SoC. Blog at the time: <a href="http://goo.gl/V9qGx" rel="nofollow">http://goo.gl/V9qGx</a> I can say that: Finding a place to sleep, entertainment (snorkel, scuba, etc), and food were all easy problems. Finding a place to work can be harder: power, internet, quiet, table/desk all in one place. (Maybe you need to borrow a house?) Three weeks was enough for me: then I wanted a dose of civilization and city life, hard though this was to imagine on day #1. Maybe it's different with more people.<p>Can you start simple, with just a few people and lasting until they get bored, and scale it up gradually perhaps?

Have you consider Penang island, it is not really isolated or exotic, but we have beautiful beaches here, and when you need a dose of civilization, it is just within 30 minutes driving distance, there are quite a few big companies here like Dell, Intel, Motolora. Standard of living is cheap. The island been ranked by Yahoo! Travel as one of the "10 Islands to Explore Before You Die". <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penang" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penang</a><p>Hope I didn't sound too much like a salesman already.

I've did this (alone) for a while. The things I discovered:<p>* Mosquitoes really, really suck the fun and productivity out of sitting on a tropical beach coding. * To a lesser extent, so does sunburn. * Finding somewhere comfortable to sit in shade is crucial, and harder than you'd think, and lying is out (appealing though it may be). * The ideal place to work was a beachside bar, without standing pools of water close by (attracting mosquitoes), that was quiet, serving coffee and wifi. Often hard to find, though. * Lack of wifi was sometimes a plus, provided it was never too far away. It's easier to focus on coding without Internet access.<p>In the end, my favorite tropical location to write code in was Singapore. The beach is overrated :)

Wow. You guys made the news here in the UK.<p><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19018930" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19018930</a>

12 weeks on a remote tropical island, luxurious villa, 12 geniuses... a cook and housekeeper.. airfare.. time away from current projects... that sounds like a pretty hefty price tag per genius if it's a paid event. I think you may have trouble finding hackers to sign up when the reality sets in. I'd recommend you get to work finding serious sponsors because right now it sounds like a nice dream. Good luck good sir.

Sad. OpenBSD popularized the term hackathon, but OS developers aren't invited...

What's the catch? Equity? Price? There isn't such a thing as a free lunch.

Is this only for singles and those who are willing to be apart from spouses for 2 months? I'd love to go to some remote location to work for few months, but I need to take my better half with me.

Hey, I'm also trying to hire coders to work on a remote tropical island [1], although for a little longer term than you. Where is this located? I can recommend some places in the Seychelles if you haven't yet decided on a spot :)<p>[1] <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/jobbit/comments/x2x1w/hiring_mobile_app_developer_in_the_tropical/" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/jobbit/comments/x2x1w/hiring_mobile_...</a>

You spelled "hackathon" wrong in the title.<p>EDIT: unless it's meant to convey that you "hack a ton" but I'm really not so sure...

Due to the level of publicity around this, a crowd-funded approach could be pretty successful. Backers could also help vote on project ideas etc.<p>What is the goal, to have everyone hack on a single project? or just provide a space for people to work on their own stuff?<p>All in all a very cool idea, hope you can make it happen!

I'm actually very intrigued, I just booked a flight to Indonesia to spent a month or so hacking / designing for myself in Bali, but doing this with others sounds like a much better plan. Any details on the schedule yet?

Great to see the interest. If anyone is interested in hacking and joining a start up incubator on MAUI, please sign up here. <a href="http://www.startupmaui.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.startupmaui.com</a>

Similar concept here but for a business model instead of a hackathon: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4306223" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4306223</a>

Sounds like a great idea. What is your timeline?

Besides being excessive, why?

How is the Internet there?

Who is going to take care of my day job..another idea #fail!

By the way guys, there's nothing set in stone yet. We're trying to put together an awesome event for all of us to benefit. Please send in your ideas/suggestions :-)